the babe with the power

dear neighborhood of rosslyn,

many thanks for hosting an "i love the 80s" outdoor film festival so amanda and i could enjoy this slice of movie wonder.

sincerely,

the girl who screamed when david bowie came on the screen

p.s. next time can you bring enough free chips for everyone? thanks so much!

dear david bowie,

you are awesome.

the end.

sincerely,

the girl who screamed when you came on the screen

p.s. also, thanks for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UoG-xQ9Lqc

keeping up with the joneses

{with the mary, emily and abby, plus one fat baby}

i have loved the jones family from the day i met abby and emily at girls' camp when i was a young and spry 13.



i love them so much, i spent a summer with them in nauvoo.



i love them so much, i got abby together with my good friend jonathan, and now they are the happily married dunfords.


i love them so much i don't mind that emily never returns my phone calls. (though i sure would like to see her more since we live five minutes away from each other now. emily, are you reading this?)



i love them so much, i briefly considered attending my 10 year high school reunion, just to hang out with them. (i got over that one, though. sorry abby!)



but i was perfectly happy, you might even say thrilled, to go to emily's house just a few blocks away when i heard abby and mary were in town with baby isaac. it's probably clear from this picture why he is more often called the fatness. this kid is only nine months old.






i sort of hogged him all night. but i don't feel bad about it since he wouldn't exist if it weren't for me.

(you're welcome!)

there goes the fear

{the turkish evil eye, which protected us on our long journey east}


it is now one month and one day since sallee and i pulled into uncle bob's driveway and my new east coast life began.

mind you, we barely made it to the driveway as the gas light came on right at the beginning of a rush hour traffic jam on the beltway. but all's well that ends well and all that.

i don't think i have appropriately lauded sallee's contribution to the trip, which i will now rectify. she was a lifesaver over many hours and many days of driving. i couldn't have done it without her and still maintained my sanity. plus, she is an excellent map-reader/navigator.

the only downside was that she was on a health food kick, so i was forced to eat peanut butter m&ms and taffy and red vines all by myself.

due to a tight time table (that would be the whole country in three days), we didn't have any time to stop and do fun things (sorry 800 pound prairie dog, six-legged live steer and many a railroad museum. we'll have to catch you on the flip side). besides, of course, getting some free popcorn at the kansas state line. (correction: i got free popcorn. sallee ate a yogurt.)




the rest of the trip looked basically like this:

{hello, kingdom city! we also passed "brazil" and a kansas/colorado border city called "kandorado."}

{is there a town more awesome than effingham? answer: no.}

{i almost killed us taking this picture. really.}


{the first sign of home, sweet home!}

in addition to sallee's great company, the trip was also greatly aided by trashy magazines from every state we drove through, and fantastic road trip mixes from all my dear salt lake friends.

one month down. cheers to that.

dine in

if you ever come and visit me in d.c. (or should i say when?) i will take you here.

(if you live in d.c., we totally have to go here.)

it is a magical place where you can eat diner food, like say, a club sandwich with onion rings and a milkshake, and watch a movie at the same time, all while sitting in a charming enclosed patio.

emily and i enjoyed a little artery clogging and "sleepless in seattle" on friday night.

next time i think you should enjoy it with me, too.

prep school

one of the wishes of my heart has been granted, and i now have a regular spot over on the segullah blog. world (wide web) domination is within my reach!

you, too, can join in my conquering, by checking out my latest (small) epiphany.

won't you?

pretty please?

norfolk, good folk

{with berto and mary, taken right before my camera started emitting smoke. for real. you might not be seeing any more pictures for a while.}

one unfortunate thing about norfolk is that to pronounce it correctly, you basically have to say a swear. i blush a little bit every time.

one forunate thing about norfolk is that berto and mary are there.

one fortunate thing about berto and mary is that they were celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary over the weekend, and invited a bunch of friends to help them do it.

one fortunate thing about me is that i now live a mere three hour drive from norfolk, which means i got to join in on the celebration, which was the biggest fortune of all. it had been almost three years since i had last seen berto and mary, so it was about time. (one fortunate thing about last time i visited them is that they were living in argentina. but norfolk is cool, too.)

i skipped out on the celebratory trip to busch gardens (not one for amusement parks, though i am thinking that after this i might not be so scared of roller coasters anymore) and instead spent saturday with my cousin heather and her family in williamsburg, eating pizza and gossiping about our relatives. two of my favorite things!

other highlights of the weekend included a cook-out, with berto masterfully helming the grill, some shopping, one of the best fish tacos i've ever had, bocce ball on the beach and my first attempts at body surfing. i am really digging living near the ocean for the first time in my life, and i plan to be a masterful body surfer by the end of the summer. then i might even tackle a board. who knows?

i can tell you straight up, though, bocce ball looks like a lost cause.

epistle

{does anyone else like pronouncing the "t" in that word, just for fun?}

the apostle paul visited ephesus (or so the bible tells us), and so did i! though i think it is probably safe to say our experiences were a little different.

mine looked like this.

























and this is definitely a new addition since paul's time.



poor guy was really missing out.